Melanie C revealed she was almost 'ousted' from Spice Girls after a minor incident with bandmate Victoria Beckham.
The 48-year-old singer opened up about the 'pivotal moment' when she and the girls were invited to the Brit Awards in 1996.
At that point, they were signed to Virgin Records but had yet to release any records.
Mel recalled them sitting next to Lenny Kravitz as they drank champagne and enjoyed the performances of the night.
"As we were all leaving, you know we'd all had a little bit of champagne. We were all a little tipsy, probably quite drunk and there was a little incident," she explained.
"It was nothing huge in my mind. I told Victoria to eff off. We all have these kerfuffles in our lives. It was under my breath. It wasn't an aggravated or aggressive thing that I did."
However, the other girls, including Mel B, Emma Bunton, Geri Horner and Victoria, spoke to her about her behaviour.
"But the next day the girls told me under no uncertain terms that it was unacceptable," she added to the How To Fail with Elizabeth Day podcast.
"Then Simon Fuller, who was our manager at the time, wanted to speak to me. And I was threatened with being ousted from the band if any behaviour like that happened again."
She said being on the journey with the band 'meant everything to her', so the minor incident 'broke her heart'.
"It shook me in that, 'Wow I've done something without realising that could've been so destructive. I've kinda lost control'. And that was the moment I started to have issues with control.
"I needed to control myself, my behaviour, my weight...It became really unhealthy."
Get all the biggest showbiz news straight to your inbox. Sign up for the free Mirror Showbiz newsletter.
The girl band, which was formed in 1994, performed together until 2000 until they went on hiatus.
Geri left the group in 1996 and cited exhaustion and creative differences.
However, they reunited for two concert tours, the Return of the Spice Girls in 2007 and Spice World in 2019.
Melanie C recently revealed she and Mel B have been “manifesting” the day that they can announce that the band are officially getting back together – this time with Victoria included.
“You’ve got to manifest these things,” she says. “I’ve taken a leaf out of Mel B’s book – she always believed we were finally going to do it.”
She added: “She’d always say when we were on tour a couple of years ago, ‘It’ll happen, we just need to manifest it’, so that’s what I’ve been trying to do. If you believe in something hard enough, surely it’s bound to happen eventually?”
Do you have a story to sell? Get in touch with us at webcelebs@mirror.co.uk or call us direct at 0207 29 33033.
